Best-selling comic book team takes on Anne Frank biography

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A "graphic biography" of Anne Frank by the creators of best-selling 2006 graphic book The 9/11 Report is set to be published internationally, according to an announcement issued July 8 by the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. The 160-page book, published July 9 in the Netherlands, will begin rolling out internationally in September.

Aimed at readers age 14 and above, Anne Frank: The Graphic Biography reportedly covers the complete life story of Anne Frank in words and images, drawing connections between her life and the historical events of the time. The book was created by two comic book veterans: writer Sid Jacobson, who created Richie Rich and served as executive editor of Marvel and Harvey Comics; and artist Ernie Colón, whose drawings credits include Casper and Wonder Woman.

Building on a strong tradition and recently growing trend of graphic non-fiction - comic books focusing on serious events - The Anne Frank House and publisher Hill & Wang reportedly approached Jacobson and Colón, whose widely praised 2006 book The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation used the US government's 9/11 Commission Report to tell a straightforward story about the events of 9/11.

Other well-known titles in the genre of graphic non-fiction include Art Spiegelman's Maus, a biography of his father, a Holocaust survivor, which won a 1992 Pulitzer Prize for its portrayal of Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice; Marjane Satrapi's 2003 graphic memoir Persepolis, about the creator's childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution; and Spiegelman's 2004 book In the Shadow of No Towers, a graphic diary of 9/11.

Anne Frank has been released by L Publishers in Netherlands, where it will also be distributed in secondary schools. In the United States and Canada, the book will be published September 21. Releases in the UK and Australia (Macmillan), Germany (Carlsen Verlag), France (Les Editions Belin), Italy (Rizzoli/Lizard), and Spain (Norma) are also planned.

Watch an animated preview of the book and a video featuring its creators at: http://www.youtube.com/annefrank